Sanlucar: New organisation of the executive board

Leading European fruit and vegetable supplier sets course for continued global growth

SanLucar, the leading European supplier of premium fruit and vegetables, is redefining the management team, optimising the conditions for continued global growth:

Michael Brinkmann, who has until now been CEO of SanLucar International, will be the sole CEO of the entire SanLucar group from January 2018 and will lead all operations worldwide.

Stephan Rötzer, founder and owner of SanLucar, in future will be looking especially after the SanLucar brand, the constant improvement of products and relationships with long-term growing partners as well as on the customer side.

“Michael Brinkmann and I have been working closely together with a trusting relationship for five years now,” says Stephan Rötzer. “The new division of duties will enable each of us to contribute his particular strengths even more effectively for the good of the company and the employees. Fruit and vegetables are natural products – to produce them all year round in highest quality is a very challenging task. I am looking forward to share my knowledge and my ideas about the best fruit and vegetables even more intensively with staff and business partners.”

“Our company has grown strongly over the past few years,” says Michael Brinkmann. “We are expanding our business in the core regions of Germany and Austria as well as in the rest of Europe and are opening up new markets for example in China, Russia, Canada and the Arab Gulf States. As CEO of SanLucar, I will take particular care of maintaining what has made us successful while adapting our operational structures and processes to our objectives of future growth. It motivates me a lot to present the outstanding quality of our products to customers around the world as good as possible.”

About SanLucar

SanLucar is a premium global brand for fruit and vegetables with offices in Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, Spain, Ecuador, South Africa and Tunisia. The company employs around 2,500 people, the majority working on the company’s farms across three continents. For 2017, the company plans to achieve a turnover of 400 million euros. With a range of around 90 fruit and vegetable products from over 35 countries, SanLucar is the brand with the widest assortment in the market. Working under the motto “Taste in harmony with people and nature”, SanLucar is a responsible company on the worldwide fruit and vegetable market and is currently expanding into the Arab Gulf States, Russia, China and Canada.

Stephan Rötzer, born in 1967 in Munich, founded SanLucar in 1993 in Spain and is the company owner. As the son of a Munich wholesaler, Stephan Rötzer grew up familiar with the fruit and vegetable trade. His innovative business ideas put “master growers” from top growing regions around the world in touch with the retail trade. With great commitment, Stephan Rötzer has turned a start-up into a globally active group of companies within a few years.

“I am still fascinated by fruits and the dynamic of the business. I love my job. I am very grateful that I can live my passion with the great people who work with fruits and vegetables and that I can give fruits and veggies the significance in our lives that they deserve.”

Michael Brinkmann, born in 1977 in Bremen, is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (MBA). First as a project manager with a leading American business consultancy, later as managing director of a family office focussing on SMEs, he has dedicated practically his entire career to the task of successfully internationalising companies and preparing them for the challenges of the global market. In the course of these activities, he has gained valuable experience in a range of different countries and cultures, primarily in the USA and South Africa as well as in Europe.

In 2013, Michael Brinkmann first became Chief Financial Officer of SanLucar and as CEO International since April 2015, he has been in charge of SanLucar´s production worldwide and its office in Germany.

“Building up a company and establishing it as the market leader in existing and new markets – these are great undertakings which start with small and very decisive steps.”